Aussie Pythons

Bearded Dragon Facts: Captivity and Hygiene 
The Bearded Dragon inhabits savannas, semi-arid regions, and rocky deserts. They are also found in open woods and up the coast. In captivity, these pets are extraordinary, showing a captivating personality and an intriguing look. The cage should be spacious and be well ventilated, so that it can achieve the ideal thermal gradient. The size for an adult Bearded Dragon reaches a minimum size of 80x40x50 cm. In the aquarium, it is recommended to use shells or sterile gravel. You can also put rocks, and arrange them carefully so that it will not collapse and crush the animal. The use of plants is not practical, as it makes no difference to the animal.

Bearded Dragons are easy to tame animals. However, the task takes time and patience. It is necessary to maintain permanent contact. By taking them, you must hold them with all your fingers below their belly. Your thumb must be lightly touching the back. These animals can not stand being taken firmly, although you should always show that it is you who dominates. If necessary, it is recommended using leather gloves, if your Bearded Dragon has the tendency to bite.

The Bearded Dragons have very fast metabolism. In appropriate circumstances, they defecate twice a day. These animals are very susceptible to parasites. In captivity, if the terrarium is not well groomed, parasites not only not die, but they can proliferate. Therefore, it is advisable to remove the remnants of feces daily. The terrarium should be fully groomed at least 3 or 4 times a year. If you notice spots or abnormalities in the stool, you should have them analyzed by a veterinarian. 

Bearded Dragon Facts: Lighting and Temperature
Bearded Dragons, like all diurnal animals, need UVB for synthesizing vitamin D. This allows the binding of calcium. It is therefore necessary to use special reptile UV tube (e.g. ReptiGlo, Zoomed Iguana, Reptile Light). Also, if the cage is in a dimly lit room during the day, the lighting should be complemented with a light. During the night, there must be no visible white incandescent light, as it causes them much stress. The photoperiod should be 12 hours. 

Although bearded dragons are desert dwellers, they spend the hottest part of the day in a relatively cool place hiding. As with all desert species, too much heat can be dangerous. The terrarium should be provided an adequate thermal gradient, both horizontally and vertically. Daytime temperatures should range between 24ºC (cool) and 30°C (warm) with a lying area between 32° and 35°C. At night, the cool temperature should not be less than 21°C. You can use a stone heater or a heating pad (under the terrarium). Furthermore, a bulb is usually used as ceramic for additional heat source. Both the bulbs and the spots must have the proper installation to prevent short circuits and fires. 

Bearded Dragon Diet
These dragons are omnivorous. They eat insects, small vertebrates, and a considerable amount of vegetable. From newborn to 4 months of age, food is a major factor. It is recommended to offer very small crickets or fruit flies without wings. After that, you can start offering young mealworms to them. Juveniles eat insects, vegetables and fruits in a 50-50 split. 

The Bearded Dragon diet in adults becomes almost exclusively vegetarian. Insects are offered up to two times per week (maximum) and a live prey every 10 to 15 days. It is preferable to provide live prey because the excess of insects can cause intestinal obstructions. These are insects like bugs, crickets, grasshoppers, zophobas, and silk caterpillars. In the case of silk caterpillars, they should be farmed, since you can hunt them in the backyards or streets. Also, silk caterpillars found in such areas may have traces of pesticides that can poison the Bearded Dragon. Vegetables that can be offered are basil, chard, watercress, dandelion leaves, summer squash, zucchini, carrots, sweet potatoes, frozen peas. Occasionally, you can feed them with parsley, pumpkin and bean sprouts. Spinach and lettuce should be avoided. For fruits, you can feed them with mango, blueberries, kiwi, strawberries, apple, banana, pear, peach, and seedless grapes. It is essential to supplement the meals (other than insects or plant material) with complete vitamins and calcium two or three times a week.

Bearded dragons are amazing reptilian creatures. They are some of the most sought after of any of the reptiles that are kept as pets. Breeding bearded dragons can be both a labor of love as well as a substantial business operation. While it requires a large amount of work in order to be able to breed these amazing creatures, it is all worth it once they have hatched.

Housing is one of the first concerns of any reptile owner. A glass aquarium will work well for bearded dragons but it should be noted that the lid needs to be secure. Having an aqaurium without a secure lid can lead to a large amount of problems. The bearded dragons can escape or an animal or human can get into the cage and potentially be injured. Be extremely careful in selecting the right housing when breeding bearded dragons. The enclosure should have a warm section where the temperature is kept to between 32 to 40 degrees. A tree branch or log is always a nice addition, the best substrate for a bearded dragon is simply newspaper.

Sexing a bearded dragon is the first step towards breeding them. You should lift up the dragons tail and examine the area just above the ventral opening. Male bearded dragons have hemipenal bulges on each side of their tail. Female bearded dragons do not have these features present. Consulting a central bearded dragon caresheet will allow you to learn even more about the genitalia of the male/female bearded dragon.

Breeding can start for bearded dragons as soon as they are mature enough. A healthy couple of dragons , an enclosure and a warm location for the female to lay her eggs are required for mating to begin. Many bearded dragons will follow their mating rituals with a period known as brumation. Bearded dragon brumation is similar to hibernating. A dragon will have almost no activity and simply rest for a long period of time. This period can vary and some dragons may be active for a few minutes each day and then brumate for the rest of the day. Each dragon has a different internal brumation schedule and will vary based upon the climate and other factors that they are exposed to. Brumation can be anythinhg from a day long process to six months or longer!

Bearded dragon eggs are incubated for a period of 65 to 75 days. They will best mature at 27 to 30 degrees. Once they have fully matured they begin to crack and the dragon will appear out of them within 24 hours. After the dragons have hatched from their eggs, they will begin feeding within 72 hours. Depending upon what specific bearded dragons were bred, there are some very unique combinations that can exist. These types of bearded dragons can be extremely unique and are amazing to look at. The sandfire bearded dragon breed is one of the most popular today. It is among one of the top breeds that are sold by breeders as well.

The chances are that you’ve come to this page because your bearded dragon wont eat, or you want to know what to feed bearded dragons. So I hope that I can help you discover the problem.

First of all are the temperatures. If it’s too cold in the enclosure your bearded dragon will slow down and wont eat. This generally happens during winter, and it’s not really too much of a problem. People recommend to keep the enclosure hot all year and to feed as much as possible, however I’ve seen bearded dragons have only two or three feeds every winter and have no adverse affects. So if your bearded dragon wont eat and it’s a cold time of year, try checking to see if the temperatures are correct, if it’s too cold, add another heat light. The temperature should be around 32-33 at the basking site.

Now, perhaps it’s just that your bearded dragon isn’t eating vegetables. If that’s the case, don’t worry at all. Most bearded dragons, especially young ones, hate vegetable. The reason they don’t eat them is because they don’t move, like live food, they don’t invoke any instinctual feeding response. So try feeding them live food and vegetables in the same dish, they’ll see the movement and eat everything there. Or try wiggling some thin sticks of carrot in front of them until you annoy them so much that they eat it. Vegetables are great for the health of a bearded dragon, but once again, they’re not essential. Some bearded dragons eat nothing but crickets and live for over ten years.

Now, the final possible reason, the one we all hope that it isn’t; a health problem. There are a few health problems that could cause your bearded dragon to stop eating. The most common is impaction, basically reptile constipation. Don’t take it lightly though, impaction is a killer if left long enough. If you think your bearded dragon could be impacted, the most notable signs of this would be if your bearded dragon wont eat and hasn’t defecated after it’s last feed, you should soak the dragon in some lukewarm water, and of course make sure it’s head is above the water level. This warm bath could provoke the dragon to have a bowel movement and clear out the impaction. However if it doesn’t and your bearded dragon still wont eat, take it to a vet as soon as possible.

So if you came here to find out what to feed bearded dragons and you had to read through all of that to get to this section, I’m sorry, but it’s valuable information to anyone with a bearded dragon.

Bearded dragons mainly eat live insects. Crickets and wood-roaches are the most popular. Wood-roaches (or woodies) are more nutritious than crickets and most bearded dragons seem to prefer them. You should combine the live food with vegetables. Carrots, corn and peas are good for bearded dragons, try to get an 80% live food – 20% vegetables diet. There are some vegetables that you mustn’t feed bearded dragons because they’re deadly. A general rule of thumb is to stay away from spinach, raw squash or anything with very high Vitamin A levels. Live food should be dusted in reptile calcium powder before every feed to provide the essential calcium levels for a bearded dragon’s diet.